Britain's oil and gas sector faces challenges

Alexey Belogoryev, Deputy Principal Director on Energy Studies of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to Baltnews on the prospects and importance of using hydraulic fracturing in the development of oil and gas fields in the UK.

“The long-term prospects for fracking gas production in the UK remain highly uncertain. In general, since Brexit, London has taken a course towards increasing energy self-sufficiency. When the country was in the EU, this was mostly due to renewable energy (especially wind turbines). In the European Union, London has begun to focus more on oil and gas, as evidence of this is the increase in gas production this year (26% growth in the first half of 2022). Another issue is that British society has an extremely negative attitude towards the production of shale gas due to environmental aspects. The ruling party in Britain is forced to reckon with this (even if there are supporters of the industry development within the party).

If we talk about fields with shale production, where there are already licenses, then, apart from the time spent on the feasibility study of the project, it is possible to start extracting hydrocarbons in about a year. However, this is with a number of reservations, since each project is unique in its own way and all have different implementation deadlines.

I believe that in the next two years the situation in the gas market in the region will be such that fracking in Britain will be economically viable. To what extent is a question for companies, not for the government. The task of the latter is to create conditions (or obstacles), that is, to regulate the process. Another thing is that in the next two years, when shale gas production will be relevant, companies in the country will simply be afraid of it because of the "black mark" from London," the expert concluded.